Troy Avenue on the Nearsouthside is one of many streets in Indianapolis that lack sidewalks for pedestrians to safely move about their neighborhoods. Danese Kenon/The Star

It takes money - a lot of it - to confront violent crime, repair crumbling infrastructure and safeguard the quality of life in a city the size of Indianapolis.

But while neighborhoods have deteriorated in the urban core, the city's budget has been squeezed by the lingering effects of a deep recession, by the loss of middle- and high-income families to the suburbs, and by property tax caps on homes and businesses.

Heading into the 2014 budget writing cycle, Mayor Greg Ballard's team estimated that the city faced a $50 million shortfall between revenue and expenses. And that was just to largely maintain current levels of service.

Creating the margin to better address real needs such as putting more police officers on the streets and whittling down the still long list of backlogged infrastructure would require a higher level of financial creativity and a new willingness to assume reasonable risks.

Thankfully, both the Mayor's Office and the Democratic leadership on the City-County Council have stepped up to those challenges in recent days.

On Thursday, Ballard, a Republican, announced plans to plow an additional $135 million into repairing and building streets, sidewalks, bridges and trails. Maggie Lewis, the Democratic president of the City-County Council, is a co-sponsor of the proposal. The fresh infusion of money would extend the life of the Rebuild Indy effort, which has plowed more than $300 million into infrastructure in the past three years. The city raised the money by selling its water and sewer works to Citizens Energy.

But that money was scheduled to run out in a couple of years, even as enormous needs remained.

The plan is for the city to raise the new money for Rebuild Indy by selling bonds, which would be paid off over 30 years using a recent windfall - $7.5 million in additional gas tax money scheduled to start arriving each year from the state.

The move isn't without risk. The city, after all, would take on more debt, and it would commit itself to a 30-year obligation to build sidewalks and repair bridges that may wear out before the bonds are repaid.

But what are the alternatives? Continue to ignore the fact that many residents in this city can't safely walk from their homes to nearby schools or businesses because there aren't sidewalks in their neighborhoods? Allow bridges to continue to deteriorate? Put off again the desperate need to improve the quality of life in large areas of the city?

Assuming the debt is a reasonable risk because the funding source for the bonds appears stable, and the move doesn't require raising any taxes.

Yet if the needs are so great, why not increase taxes, instead of borrowing?

A bump in the county option income tax, the most likely option, would be undesirable for two reasons. It would hit residents, including many low-income families, while many of them are still struggling to recover from the recession. And it could push many higher-income workers to move to surrounding counties, where tax rates would be lower.

The mayor on Friday did announce plans to extend the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department taxing district beyond the old city limits, a move that would increase IMPD's funding by about $1.3 million a year. Ballard also again called for eliminating the homestead property tax credit, which would provide another $11 million a year for public safety. The council recently shot down eliminating the homestead credit, but President Lewis and other Democrats have voiced support for expanding the IMPD taxing area.

What does it all mean for the city, and the region? Maintaining the status quo in terms of funding would pose a severe risk for the city, which is at the heart of Central Indiana's economic and cultural life. Violent crime must be confronted. Sidewalks must be repaired or built. Bridges must be maintained. The urban core can't be allowed to hollow out any further without the entire region beginning to suffer.

The mayor and the council leadership have proposed reasonable financial sacrifices to better meet the city's undeniable needs. Indy should embrace the proposals.